Emergent Research

EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

Authors

The authors are Steve King and Carolyn Ockels. Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. Carolyn is leading the coworking study and Steve is a member of the project team.

Videos

Disclosure Policy

Emergent Research works with corporate, government and non-profit clients. When we reference organizations that have provided us funding in the last year we will note it.
If we mention a product or service that we received for free or other considerations, we will note it.

The reason is success in a growing number of high-skill professions requires more interpersonal skills like collaboration, empathy, and managing others. As the study points out, there's a lot of research showing women, on average, have stronger interpersonal skills than men.

Key quote from the study abstract:

Since 1980, the probability that a college-educated man was employed in a cognitive/high-wage occupation fell. This contrasts starkly with the experience of college-educated women: their probability of working in these occupations rose, despite a much larger increase in the supply of educated women relative to men during this period.

So not only are women improving in terms of their likelihood of working in high wage occupations relative to men, the number of well educated women has exceeded that of men for several decades.

Yes, we're aware that men on average out earn women, hold more senior executive positions, etc. We also know there's still more work to be done on gender equality.

But the trends driving the end of men and the rise of women are powerful and show no signs of turning around. Expect women to continue to gain relative to men across a wide variety of social and economic measures in the coming years.

Because of this, don't be surprised if in another decade or so we're talking about how to achieve gender equality for men.

Our section on Women covers both the rise of women and the problems facing men in more detail.

May 28, 2015

The surveys asked about the motivations and challenges among Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Women, LGBT and Veteran small business owners.

Their key finding is small business owners have pretty much the same motivations and challenges regardless of their ethnic, racial and social backgrounds. Key quote:

There are more similarities than differences across diverse small-business owner segments. Racially and ethnically diverse small-business owners share similar broad challenges with the general population of owners.

This echos our finding on this topic over the years.

Below are two charts from their reports showing the motivations for being a small business owner by different demographic cohorts.

I have to add I was much amused when I read the methodology section in these reports.

Methodology sections are normally not a source of mirth, but I laughed out loud when I read:

Owners with less than $10,000 in revenue were asked to confirm if they considered their work a business in order to be included in the survey.

This means some small businesses with less than $10,000 in revenue were included in these surveys. It also means many more small businesses with less than $100,000 were included.

Why is this funny?

The reason is the vast majority of small businesses with less than $100,000 in revenue are solo businesses and Gallup is on the record as saying solo business aren't real small businesses. They describe them as "inactive companies that have no sales, profits, customers or workers".

I find it funny that they don't consider these firms real, but still include them in their surveys.

October 15, 2014

Their are two really interesting male/female gaps in the U.S. The wage gap, where men make more money on average than women, gets a lot of attention.

The education gap, where women and girls out perform men and boys at all levels of education, gets less attention.

Also getting little attention is the fact that these two gaps are linked.

Over time those that are better educated will be paid better. And as we've written about before, women currently comprise about 57% of all college students and it is expected this will grow to about 60% by 2019.

One important point is the survey is not based on a statistical sample of U.S. women or U.S. mothers. Instead, Hulafrog surveyed their online members. This group is better educated than women with chidren in general and likely has higher incomes. Because of this, we cannot assume these results are valid for women with children overall. But the data is still interesting and reflects the interests of a lot of mothers.

August 19, 2013

The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh's garment district earlier this year killed more than a 1,000 garment workers. It also highlighted the ethical issues associated with the global fashion industry.

In response to this disaster - and broader fashion industry environmental and human rights problems - a number of new retailers and fashion labels that focus on social and environmental responsibility are springing up.

A good example is BeGood Clothing in San Francisco. They are predominately an online retailer of ethical and sustainable fashion, but they also have a retail store (pictured below).

Slow fashion is also part of the broader shift towards local, handmade and/or artisan goods. We've long covered the rise of the artisan economy and the growing number of goods being produced using sustainable and artisan methods - which includes everything from bikes to distilled spirits.

It's exciting to see the fashion industry becoming more sustainable. In addition to the environmental and social benefits that will accrue, this shift will also create new opportunities for small fashion businesses and artisans.

They suggest that an emerging economic gender gap favoring women is developing. This gap is being driven by the underperformance of boys and men in school.

Key quote fron the study:

" ... the stagnation of male educational attainment bodes ill for the well-being of recent cohorts or U.S. males, particularly minorities and those from low income households. Less-educated males of recent cohorts are likely to face diminished employment and earnings opportunities and other attendant maladies , including poorer health, high probability of incarceration, and generally lower life satisfaction."

In other words, men and boys are in trouble.

The key chart illustrating this point is below. It shows that women's wages have increased substantially more than men's over the last couple of decades. More importantly, men without college educations have seen their wages fall over this time frame.

Before you send me an email, yes - men still out earn women on average.

The study points out that the social and economic costs of the decline of men are substantial. As we wrote in our article Missing the Point on the End of Men, we need to recognize the problems facing boys and men and start fixing them.

Our category on Women has a lot more posts, data and links on both women advancing educationally and economically (which is good), and the decline of boys and men.